Emma Raducanu's rise to global stardom has come with certain challenges and John McEnroe feels the 20-year-old would be in a better place if she went to college.
Raducanu was put into the spotlight when she won the 2021 US Open after beating Leylah Fernandez in the final. It was an against-all-odds achievement as Raducanu, then aged 18, entered the Grand Slam main draw as a qualifier and she was ranked 150th in the WTA Rankings at the time.
But, Raducanu has not been able to rediscover the same heights in her game since and she has endured a troubled period, which saw her drop out of the WTA top 100 earlier in 2023. Reflecting on the Brit's rise and subsequent difficulties, McEnore said to the US Sun that Raducanu wouldn't regret winning the US Open, but that a college education would have given her more coping tools to handle the success.
"I'm sure if you ask her at the end of her career would you rather have one one major or none, if it turns out that way, she would rather win one,"
"[But] one of the reasons why I think kids go to college is that it gives them time to grow up and mature so they can handle things if and when something like this happens. So it's more difficult when you're an 18-year-old and all of a sudden your world changes so drastically."
Raducanu has not featured since she lost in straight sets against Jelena Ostapenko at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in April. Since then, the 20-year-old has been ruled out of competitive tennis through injury and she had three separate surgeries on both wrists and her ankle.
As a result, the British player confirmed that she would miss out on Wimbledon and Roland Garros 2023. But she could be set for a return later in the campaign.
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